90.5 WESA's "The Confluence" for Tuesday, October 27, 2020
On today's program: The Tree of Life community continues to live with the aftermath of the 2018 attack; a survivor of a Nazi concentration camp and the Tree of Life worshipper shares his story; and a writer documents the resilience of the Squirrel Hill community in a new book.
Eleven candles were lit at a vigil in Pittsburgh Sunday evening to remember the 11 Jewish worshipers who were killed a year ago at the Tree of Life synagogue. The shooting was the worst anti-Semitic attack on American soil in U.S. history.
Students at Greenfield School K-8 stood on the athletic field as the school dedicated an adjacent garden to the families of the victims and Zone 4 officers who were on the scene of the Tree of Life shooting last October.
The shooting at Tree of Life synagogue last year took 11 lives and impacted countless others. For the officers who rushed to the scene that day, Pittsburgh Bureau of Police Sergeant Carla Kearns said the first anniversary, like any significant trauma, may be the toughest.
90.5 WESA’s An-Li Herring reports that survivors of the attack on the Tree of Life synagogue have a range of opinions on whether the federal government should seek the death penalty against the accused shooter.
Federal prosecutors announced in August that they will pursue the death penalty against the man accused of killing 11 at the Tree of Life synagogue last October. They argued in a court filing that one reason the attack was especially nefarious was because it stemmed from the defendant’s hatred for Jews.
On Wednesday, Sept. 15, 1999, a gunman entered Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas. In less than 10 minutes, seven people died, including four teenagers.
90.5 WESA's "The Confluence" for Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019
On today's program: Mayor Bill Peduto says the city remains united, but not much has changed about guns or violent crime in the one year since the attack at Tree of Life synagogue; and childhood obesity rates in Pennsylvania have climbed into the nation's top 10.
At least 12 white supremacists have been arrested on allegations of plotting, threatening or carrying out anti-Semitic attacks in the U.S. since the massacre at a Pittsburgh synagogue nearly one year ago, a Jewish civil rights group reported Sunday.
A Christian church hosts a synagogue for the High Holidays
Tree of Life -- Or L’Simcha is a conservative Jewish congregation, and Calvary Episcopal Church is mainline Protestant. But both Pittsburgh congregations trace their origins to the mid-19th century. And both have long inhabited houses of worship accented by stained glass on tree-lined Shady Avenue, albeit a mile apart.
